Ending insecurity, mistrust starts with narrowing inequality

THE vast majority of South Africans are not extremists, racists, xenophobes or cultural separatists.

- BRETT HERRON

They are not Coloured or Zulu or Afrikaner nationalists, nor Black or White supremacists. They understand that extreme poverty is unsustainable, and that the government should have done far better over the past 30 years to build a fairer, more united nation.

But they don't want White people stripped of assets and marched into the sea. Nor do they want Black people to continue suffering the indignities imposed under colonialism and apartheid.

What they need is a renewed belief that the society described in our Constitution, rooted in equality, justice and shared purpose, embodied by Mandela, remains possible. That there will come a time when all South Africans have a place at the table and are no longer crushed by a State defined by dysfunction and corruption.

They want to be released from the grip of the past and its daily consequences for millions.

How do we get there? Do we burn the house down so it can be rebuilt from the ashes, or do we use what we have, pivot, and move forward?

Complicating matters is the vacuum created by economic stagnation and failed transformation. Into this space has stepped populism and identity politics. Many new parties are built in opposition to the interdependence and nonracialism envisioned in our democracy's founding documents.